1. Field
The invention is in the field of meat products.
2. State of the Art
Over the years there have been many types of meat products developed. In the area of fast food products particularly for use in sandwiches, either hot or cold, ground meat products are used extensively. Thus, ground meat products such as hamburger patties are used extensively in hot sandwiches, and ground meat products such as bologna or other so called luncheon meats and saugages of various types are used in cold sandwiches. Ground meat has a definite texture that identifies it as ground meat and it does not taste or feel like meat chunks, slices, or pieces. One reason for this is that ground meat is usually highly compressed in order to hold its shape. This gives the meat a high density. In many instances, such as with hamburger patties, it would be desirable to decrease the density of a patty so that the same weight portion of meat would produce a bigger patty and give the impression of more meat. In addition, it would be desireable to produce a meat product, such as a meat patty which gives the feel and texture of real meat rather than ground meat, but still maintains the tenderness of ground meat.
Sliced meat is popular for both hot and cold sandwiches. However, portioned sliced meat products are not generally available and in commerical operations, it is generally necessary to have a meat slicer and the special cuts of meat available to slice in order to make such sandwiches. Further, particularly if thin slices are used, slicing should be done close to the time the slices are actually used since sliced meat, particularly with thin slices, dries out rather rapidly. In addition, with sliced meat, slices must be selected and put into the sandwiches. It is difficult to get accurate weight portions of meat into a sandwich in this manner. Thus, sliced meat sandwiches are much more difficult to prepare and are more labor and material intensive than merely using a hamburger patty or a preportioned slice of luncheon meat.